- In Lance's book "It's Not About the Bike" he explained how quickly his sponsors abandoned him when he got his cancer diagnosis. Only three stuck by him -- Giro, Oakley, and Nike. This loyalty meant the world to him, he said, and so he'd be a Giro, Oakley, and Nike man for life. Loyalty is awesome. And grudges are awesome, too. We support Lance in both emotions. But we'd suggest that he get his cobbler to work, because the shoes shown in this photo from a recent time trial in Texas are Rocket 7's, not Nikes.

The landscape for Nike on the bike industry is considerably different now than it was during Lance's heyday, and therein might be the explanation for Lance's shoe choice. In the 2000-2005 era, Nike was still busting its hump trying to penetrate the bike industry. They had Giordana make its clothing; they had DMT make its shoes; and all distribution was done through Trek. If you wanted a Discovery or Postal jersey, or if you wanted a pair of Lance-replica Nike shoes, you had to buy it through your local Trek dealer. That agreement ended about 18 months ago, and as far as I know Nike cycling clothing and cycling shoes are history. Surely Lance is wearing Rocket 7's because they're really freaking nice shoes. But shouldn't someone stitch on some swooshes? It's one thing to see the Nike logo on clothing, but shoes is where they belong…

So it's been awhile since I've seen a set of Rocket 7's but those shoes (at best as I can see in the blurry enlarged pic) look much more finished than any Rocket's I've seen (again, it's been awhile since I've seen any, so I could be very wrong).

To me, those look more like a prototype pair of shoes from a polished manufacturer rather than the home-made look of Rocket's I've seen in the past.

The unmarked one looks like it has a strip of leather (or similar) material running up the center of the toe, from the tip to the first strap. The top of the toe looks to be a different material on either side of this bisecting strip.

The Nike branded version does not have the centered strip of material on the toe, and the entire top of the toe appears to be uniformly one material.

Other details are harder to make out, but the Nike branded version appears to have a sculpted plastic midsole, while the unmarked shoe looks to be less complex in this area. On the unmarked shoe, the straps appear to be multi-material and lay flush. On the Nike branded shoe, the straps are definitely one material and the ends curl up and out from the shoe body.

EDIT: Seeing the Rocket 7 shoes above, it's clear to me that they are a match to the unmarked mystery shoe. Look at the unique shape of the mesh fabric... on the right-side-up Rocket 7 shoe above, it looks like a pipe, or a swoosh with the top cut off. You can see this same mesh portion in the pic of the unbranded shoe. The Nike branded shoe must be a Nike prototype...

I still don't understand what the original author was getting at in his first post.

Just before last year's Olympics in Beijing Nike introduced the Lunaracer, a very light racer shoe for long distance runners. The low weight yet good support is a result of the use of Flywire, vectran wires which give the shoe upper strength and support the feet. It has good characteristics to make a lightweight cycling shoe. For shoe covers, the Flywire material is not required.

This is a picture taken just before the prologue in Sacramento. Probably the luckiest 40 minutes I've had in a while.....just hanging out with the team in a parking garage with 3 or 4 other lucky fans that happened to pass by. And, no, I wasn't the guy that stole the bike.

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